SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA
ARCHIVISTS
NEWSLETTER
Number 156
ISSN 1931-5473
Fall 2015
Equal Rights Collection at San Francisco Public Library
T
he Daniel E. Koshland San Francisco History Center has acquired the Edward Howden Papers, 19152015 (bulk 1946-1967), documenting the professional work of the civil rights leader, who actively
participated in the successful campaigns for the California Fair Employment Practice Commission and the
state’s Fair Housing Law. The collection covers his work on behalf of the San Francisco Council for Civic
Unity, the San Francisco Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, the California Fair Employment
Practice Commission, and the U.S. Community Relations Service Agency, a unit of the Department of
Justice. Howden was the first staff director of the state FEPC,
in 1959, under Gov. Edmund G. Brown. He also hosted a weekly
radio program, Dateline Freedom, and a weekly television
documentary and live series, Barrrier, both covering human
rights. For the CRS, he mediated significant minority concerns
including tribal matters in the western region of the country.
With the Council for Civic Unity, a city-wide, interracial,
civil rights organization, Howden co-authored A Civil Rights
Inventory of San Francisco (with Irving Babow in 1958). The
jobs report concluded, “employment opportunity in private
industry in San Francisco is still widely restricted according to
race.” Numerous books and journal articles highlight his work.
In The Postwar Struggle for Civil Rights, African Americans in
San Francisco, 1945-1975, Paul T. Miller called the Civil Rights
Inventory “the most comprehensive study on African American
concerns since the 1944 survey, The Negro War Worker in San
Francisco” [by Charles S. Johnson, et. al.].
Cover of 352-page survey, published in
1958 by Council for Civic Unity. Daniel
Koshland was a CCU founding board
member and chairman of the publication’s
committee.
IN
THIS
ISSU E
Howden successfully mediated the Willie Mays housing matter
in 1957. The San Francisco Giants’ centerfielder and his young
wife, Marghuerite, were challenged by developers as well as
residents of St. Francis Wood (in San Francisco) in their attempt to
purchase a new home in nearby Miraloma Park. The case gained
negative attention nationwide. With Howden’s help, the Mays
were allowed to move into the neighborhood, removing the color
barrier.
continued on p. 4
Equal Rights Collection at SFPL
President’s Message
Collection Spotlight
News & Announcements
1
2
6
8
Exhibition Spotlight
Other Articles
SCA News & Announcements
Calendar 12
13
18
20
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
President’s Message
I
t’s been an active and busy summer for SCA.
The Board had its first meeting at San Jose
State in early August. The Finance and Investment
Committee, chaired by Treasurer Leilani
Marshall, is working on developing an Investment
Policy Statement for SCA. The new policy will
outline SCA’s investment objectives, provide
general investment guidelines, and establish
performance and administrative expectations for
SCA’s financial asset management.
We are pleased to officially welcome the SCA
Student Chapter at UCLA, an SCA affinity group,
as well as a new Southern California co-Chair for
the Site Selection Committee, Eric Milenkiewicz.
Additionally, the Local Arrangements and
Program Committees are beginning their work
planning our upcoming Annual General Meeting
in Santa Rosa. Thanks to Vice President/
President Elect Mattie Taormina for undertaking
her work as Chair of the Program Committee, to
Teresa Mora and David Uhlich for co-chairing
the Local Arrangements Committee, and to all the
SCA members who have agreed to serve on those
committees.
The 29th Annual Western Archives Institute was
successfully concluded in July with Principal
Faculty Member Dennis Meissner. Congratulations
to this year’s 25 WAI graduates, especially SCA
Scholarship winner Massiel Bobadilla. We’re
lucky to have such a large, robust, and engaged
professional community in California, and we’re
so glad to have all of you join us. Thanks also
to Santa Clara University for hosting and cosponsoring the Institute through 2017.
At the Society of American Archivists Annual
Conference in Cleveland in August the Regional
Archival Associations Consortium (RAAC) met to
go over the past year’s activities and plan for next
year. RAAC subcommittees worked on developing
a directory of regional organizations in the US
and Canada, providing support to organizations
seeking grant funding, undertaking archival
2
advocacy work, sharing information about
educational opportunities, and promoting public
awareness of archives. The RAAC is also planning
to host a symposium at next year’s SAA Annual
Meeting in Atlanta.
Late in August SCA’s two mini conferences took
place in San Diego and Sacramento. The mini
conferences were popular, with 183 SCA members
attending one or the other. The programs at each
were different, but both featured historians and
archivists as plenary and luncheon speakers.
Sessions were on such topics as teaching with
primary sources, using technology and new tools in
archives, and working with community members
in archives. Tours of local repositories were also
a feature of both mini conferences. Look for a
more detailed write up in an upcoming newsletter
issue, and keep an eye out for opportunities to
send in feedback about the mini conferences if you
attended one. Thanks to everyone who helped plan
the two events, especially committee chairs Katie
Richardson and Jessica Knox.
Finally, Archives Month is coming up soon.
This year’s poster celebrates the 165 years of
statehood in California. The California Archives
Month poster will be mailed out to SCA members
in late September. Please visit the California
Archives Month website to find information about
events happening around the state in October in
celebration of archives.
In closing, I want to thank all SCA member
volunteers. The activities described above would
be impossible without you. Thanks to all for the
work you do on SCA’s behalf!
Ellen Jarosz
President
Society of California Archivists
Number 156
3
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
SCA NEWSLETTER
Number 156
T he S ociet y
of
Fall 2015
C alifornia
A rchivists , I nc .
The Society of California Archivists, Inc. exists to
support and develop those who collect, care for,
and provide access to the documentary heritage of
California and adjoining areas.
To this end it:
1. acts as a vehicle for dissemination of information
about archival collections, issues, and methodology
to the profession and the public;
2. provides a forum for the discussion of matters
related to the creation, preservation, and use of
historical documents;
3. develops, offers and supports archival education
programs;
4. cooperates with individuals and organizations on
matters of common concern; and
5. advocates the identification, collection,
preservation, use, and appreciation of historical
records and manuscripts.
The SCA Newsletter is published quarterly in
January, April, July, and October. All submissions,
advertisements for future issues, letters to the editors,
and inquiries regarding the newsletter should be
directed to the Editors of the Newsletter:
Newsletter Editors
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Email(s): newsletter@calarchivists.org
E.F. Joseph photo; appeared in Sun-Reporter, Jan. 11,
1958, with headline, “Willie Mays Becomes Highest
Paid Player in Giant History.” Left to right: Edward
Howden of the Council for Civic Unity; Howden’s
son, Jonathan (in arms); unknown child; Willie Mays;
Jefferson Beaver, president of the San FranciscoOakland Urban League; and Marghuerite Mays.
The collection includes essays, statements, and
testimony including California’s Housing Needs,
Statement to the Tolan Committee, (October 1940);
lawsuit case notes, original letters and notes,
speeches, meeting notes, surveys, newsletters,
photographs, newspaper clippings, and radio
program scripts. A number of personal papers
belonging to family members are also included.
Among the subjects are racial bias in job and
employment discrimination, school segregation,
1964’s Proposition 14 which struck down the
Rumford Fair Housing Act (Proposition 14 was
subsequently ruled unconstitutional), the 1965
Los Angeles (Watts) Riots, the post-World War II
return of Japanese Americans to the West Coast,
racial tolerance, civil rights and foreign policy,
affirmative action, and the formation of the state
Fair Employment Practice Commission. There
continued on p. 5
Copy Deadlines: September 1, December 1, March 1,
& June 1
Format for Submissions:
Articles and other items submitted for consideration
should be sent via e-mail attachment.
Newsletter editors and layout designers: Michele
Morgan, Emily Vigor, and Joanna Black.
www.calarchivists.org
4
©2015
Undated photo of Edmund G. “Pat” Brown
SCA NEWSLETTER
Number 156
Equal Rights (continued from p. 4)
are significant materials documenting Howden’s
post-retirement work fighting the California Civil
Rights Initiative (Proposition 209, passed by voters
in 1996) which effectively ended affirmative action.
In 1951, the United States Army investigated Ed
and Marion Beers Howden on disloyalty allegations.
He wrote to his associates, “I must request your
immediate assistance…on a matter which though
it still seems strangely unreal to me, is deadly
serious, not only to me and my family but to the
work of the Council for Civic Unity.” He received a
great number of support letters in response. These
became part of a large rebuttal submission to the
Army. The Howdens were subsequently cleared of
all charges.
Howden’s second wife, Anne Saito Howden, was
also a human rights activist, working for many
social and political causes. These included the 1948
California Housing Initiative, James Roosevelt
gubernatorial campaign, Israel Bonds, and the SF
Council for Civic Unity. She served on the state
Women’s Board of Terms and Parole in the late
1960s, and on the San Francisco Fire Commission
during the 1980s. Howden wrote, “Anne was a role
model for many younger women in her commitment
and steadfastness.”
The Edward Howden Papers evidence his yearslong struggles fighting for fair employment and fair
housing legislation, urban redevelopment in San
Francisco, non-discrimination policies and acrossthe-board desegregation. Looking back, Howden
said that while he feels he “has done some useful
work, contributing solutions to problems, I am
quite humbled by the work of so many on behalf
of the poor, the ill—for social justice. In the face
of terrible tragedies that beset the world, I take
some comfort in the fine work of these dedicated
servants.” He also commented on his appreciation
for the place and role of archives and archivists in
caring for and sharing historical records.
All images from the Edward Howden Papers, San
Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public
Library.
Tami J Suzuki
San Francisco History Center
San Francisco Public Library
tami.suzuki@sfpl.org
5
Fall 2015
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
COLLECTION SPOTLIGHT
Two New Collections available
at The Environmental Design Archives, UC Berkeley
T
he Environmental Design Archives is pleased to
announce the completion of several finding aids
for new collections. The Anshen & Allen Collection
and the Marian Osgood Hooker Collection are both
available and open for research.
Tantau and Allen for Masten & Hurd. It was then
they began to learn about and appreciate the
characteristics of west coast design while dreaming
of the day they could open a joint practice.
In 1939, Anshen and Allen secured their first
commission: a house in Woodside, CA for Ralph
K. Davies, senior vice president for the Standard
Oil Company. The following year they formed the
architectural firm, Anshen & Allen. The house was
finished in 1941, one week before the attack on Pearl
Harbor.
During WWII, Allen served as a Lieutenant
Commander in the Navy and Anshen as a Technical
Director for the Housing Authority in Vallejo, CA.
By 1946, both were back to practicing architecture
full time, and with the help of Davies, they had a
growing list of clients. The firm became known for
a wide variety of project types including residential,
commercial, educational, religious, and later
specializing in medical buildings. Their most well
known projects include the Chapel of the Holy Cross
in Sedona, AZ and the International Building in San
Francisco.
Robert Anshen (standing) and Stephen Allen with
San Francisco’s International Building,
ca. 1960, photographer unknown
Anshen & Allen Collection, Environmental Design
Archives, University of California, Berkeley
a model of
The Anshen & Allen Collection documents the first
50 years of the so named San Francisco architectural
firm and the careers of the founding principals
Robert Anshen and Stephen Allen.
Anshen and Allen met while attending the University
of Pennsylvania. Upon graduating in 1936, both
received traveling fellowships allowing them to take
a global tour, including Germany, Japan, and Italy.
In 1937 they landed in San Francisco and both began
working as chief designers, Anshen for Clarence
6
In 1950, Anshen & Allen began collaborating with
Joseph Eichler of Eichler Homes, Inc. to build the
first modernist tract homes named for the developer.
Bob Anshen would become known for adding an
atrium to the building plans, a classic Eichler
element.
Anshen joined the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) in 1946 and became a Fellow in 1962. He was
a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley
from 1952-1953, a lecturer at the Interior Design
Conference is Aspen, CO in 1957, and was also on the
original design team for the University of California,
Santa Cruz. He died suddenly in 1964.
Allen joined the AIA in 1948, served as president of
the AIA Northern California Chapter in 1956, and
became a Fellow in 1959. He was a member of the
San Francisco Art Commission from 1952-1956,
Chairman of the Civic Design Commission from
1954-1956, and an advisor to the Architect Selection
continued on p. 7
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
New EDA Collections (continued from p. 6)
Committee for the California State Colleges in 1961.
He died at the age of 80 in 1992.
The Anshen & Allen Collection finding aid is available
on the Online Archive of California at http://www.
oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c87h1nx6/.
The Marian Osgood Hooker Collection consists of
photograph albums documenting Hooker’s travels
in Europe and her home state of California, as well
as prints from her book Farmhouses and Small
Provincial Buildings in Southern Italy.
Dr. Marian Osgood Hooker was born in San Francisco
in 1875 to Katharine Putnam Hooker, the niece of
famous geologist Josiah Dwight Whitney, and John
Daggett Hooker, a direct descendent of Connecticut’s
founder Thomas Hooker. The family, which also
included Marian’s older brother Laurence Whitney
Hooker (1873-1894), moved to Los Angeles in 1886
in search of economic opportunity. Los Angeles
was experiencing boom times and John Hooker
established a successful steel pipe manufacturer. The
family moved to a mansion on well-known Adams
Street where they entertained famous scientists,
poets, and authors including John Muir who became
a close friend of Katharine Hooker.
Fall 2015
Marian, surrounded by intellectuals in her childhood
home, developed a love of art and science. At the
prestigious Marlborough School in Los Angeles,
she studied art history under school founder Mary
Caswell. In 1896, two years after graduation,
Marian and her mother embarked on their first
of five trips abroad. She meticulously documented
her adventures in Gibraltar, Spain, Tangier, Italy,
Greece, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France,
Belgium, Amsterdam, and England in a scrapbook.
In 1899 and 1903, she and Katharine returned to
Italy. In 1913-1914, they travelled to Constantinople,
England, Ireland, Egypt, and Italy. In 1922, they
made their final trip abroad to the Italian province
of Apulia.
Marian and her mother sought to capture in image
and writing the daily lives of the people they
encountered. Marian’s prints and illustrations were
published in her mother’s travel books Byways in
Southern Tuscany, Wayfarers in Italy, and Through
the Heel of Italy, which were unique for veering away
from touristy topics. In 1925, Marian published her
own book of images called Farmhouses and Small
Provincial Buildings in Southern Italy, which
included introductions by Katharine and architect
Myron Hunt. Hunt credited Farmhouses for inspiring
some of his Mediterranean-style architecture.
continued on p. 8
So, what are you doing about Aeon?
You’ve heard your colleagues talk about it.
You’ve read about it. You’ve considered it.
Now what?
More than 50 special collections libraries, archives, and
historical societies are using Aeon. Through Aeon, they
have registered 200,000 researchers for personal
accounts, managed more than 500,000 reading room
visits, and provided access to over 1,000,000 items,
with each transaction trackable for statistics and security.
Service.
Security.
Statistics.
That’s what Aeon delivers.
www.atlas-sys.com/aeon/
Isn’t it time you let Aeon
deliver it to you?
For more information, and to see a list of who’s using Aeon, visit
www.atlas-sys.com/aeon/.
7
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
New EDA Collections (continued from p. 7)
Fall 2015
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Flyaway Along These Lines
A
s Director of the Labor Archives and Research
Center, I take to heart the Association of
Research Libraries directive that archives must
undertake activities that will increase their
visibility in order to raise awareness of the “unique
and irreplaceable contribution that special
collections make to scholarship and learning, and
to the general public good.” Over the last decade
we have participated in a number of innovative
collaborations with artists as a way to engage
the community, raise the Archives’ profile with
donors, and provide accessible education on labor
history and our collections.
Castle of Malpaga, ca. 1899,
Marian Osgood Hooker photographer
Marian Osgood Hooker Collection, Environmental
Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley
In 1910, Marian earned a degree in medicine
from the University of California, Berkeley. She
co-authored several scientific papers with Dr.
Martin Fischer during her stay at the University
of Cincinnati and in later years. In 1912, she
returned to the west coast to become Assistant
Medical Examiner at the University of California.
This October the Labor Archives is partnering with
Flyaway Productions on an exciting aerial dance
entitled Needles to Thread: Dancing Along These
Lines, which takes on the issue of wage security
for women through the story of San Francisco’s
garment workers past and present.
Flyaway creates dances that take place in the
air, with dancers suspended anywhere from 2 to
100 feet above ground level and uses the artistry
of spinning, flying, and exquisite suspension to
continued on p. 9
Marian was a member of the San Francisco
Women’s Club, the San Francisco Women’s Athletic
Club, the Women’s Club of Santa Barbara, the
Sierra Club, the California Historical Society, and
others. She died in in 1968.
Cailin Trimble and Clare Suffern
Environmental Design Archives
UC Berkeley
Photo credit: R.J.Muna
8
SCA NEWSLETTER
Number 156
Flyaway (continued from p. 8)
engage political and social issues. The company
creates a sense of spectacle to make a lasting
impression with an audience, striving for the right
balance of awe, provocation and daring.
I worked closely with the choreographer to
develop the initial concept of the dance, supplying
information about early organizing of Chinese
garment workers during the 1930s. For the
performance itself, I will conduct two walking
tours highlighting forgotten labor history in the
neighborhood. The walking tours draw from the
Archives’ San Francisco Labor Landmarks Guide
Book, a 162-page register of historic sites and five
walking tours.
Don’t miss this exciting performance! October
3rd and 10th, walking tour at 7pm & dance
performance at 8pm – Continuum Alley next to
255 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco. For more
information: www.library.sfsu.edu/larc
Catherine Powell
Director, Labor Archives and Research Center
San Francisco State University
Stanford’s Special Collections &
University Archives receives IMLS
funding to support ePADD Phase 2
development
S
tanford University Libraries’ Special Collections
and University Archives has been awarded a
National Leadership Grant for Libraries through
the Institute for Museum & Library Studies
(IMLS), to fund additional development of ePADD,
open source software that supports archival
processes around the appraisal, ingest, processing,
discovery, and delivery of email archives.
The initial public release of ePADD was made
available on Github on June 30, 2015, following two
years of development funded through the National
Historical Publications & Records Commission.
This second phase of development, beginning
November 1, 2015, will specifically focus on building
out additional functionality that advances the
formation of a National Digital Platform, through
9
Fall 2015
expanding the program’s scalability, usability,
and feature set. Special Collections & University
Archives will undertake this work with partners
at University of California, Irvine, University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Harvard University,
and the Metropolitan New York Library Council
(METRO).
More information about ePADD, including links to
the software, documentation, community forums,
and the mailing list, can be found on the ePADD
project website.
For additional information, please contact the
project team at epadd_project@stanford.edu, or
follow the project on Twitter at @e_padd.
Josh Schneider
Assistant University Archivist
ePADD Community Manager
Stanford University
SJSU Masters of Archives and
Records Administration Students
Among First to Experience
Preservica’s Digital Preservation
System, via Exciting New Course
G
raduate students pursuing a Master’s degree
in Archives and Records Administration
(MARA) at the San José State University School
of Information (iSchool) have a new course
offering this fall, featuring the best technology
used in the information governance field. The
new course, Enterprise Content Management and
Digital Preservation, focuses on capturing and
continued on p. 10
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
SJSU Course (continued from p. 9)
managing records and information from creation
to final disposition and features two software
programs, Microsoft SharePoint and Preservica,
which, when used in concert, present an excellent
hands-on teaching tool for information lifecycle
management.
Beginning with SharePoint, Microsoft’s cloudbased service used as a “secure place to store,
organize, share, and access information from
almost any device,” iSchool students will create,
use, maintain, and provide short-term retention
for digital content.
The next step is to move the content that has
long-term value, such as scanned digital files and
pictures, into Preservica, a digital preservation
system, for long-term retention.
Preservica, cloud based software used by a
variety of organizations worldwide, is simply
defined by one archivist user as a “secure
digital repository.” With a user friendly webbased interface, Preservica offers accessibility
for researchers, easily exports data, and has
excellent indexing and migration tools. From
the product’s website, Preservica is described as
using OAIS (Open Archival Information System)
compliant workflows for “data management,
storage, access, administration and preservation”
and can be set up to accommodate easy, safe file
sharing of an archival collection, allowing internal
library or organizational staff and public users
to browse, search and download open content
archives on smartphones, tablets, or PCs. And
archival specialists can enjoy “explorer” access:
“comprehensive hierarchy browsing, advanced
search and metadata editing.”
Dr. Patricia C. Franks, associate professor and
coordinator of the MARA program, notes that
the unique aspect of the iSchool’s Enterprise
Content Management and Digital Preservation
course “is that it focuses on information lifecycle
management from creation through disposition
(destruction or long-term preservation).” It will
provide students with the skills and competencies
they need on the job to manage information and
records, full cycle. It will also cover ISO standards,
continued on p. 11
10
Fall 2015
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
SJSU Course (continued from p. 10)
essential knowledge for content management.
The iSchool is the first recipient of Preservica’s
Cloud Edition Teaching License in the United
States. Preservica’s Preservation system is used
by both the UK National Archives and the Swiss
Federal Archives, and is becoming increasingly
popular in the U.S. The Hagley Museum and
Library, Kentucky Department for Library and
Archives, Vermont State Archives, Archives of
Michigan, and Texas State Library and Archives
all use Preservica as the best resource for their
long-term preservation needs.
This exciting new iSchool lifecycle management
course not only introduces students to popular
software in use in libraries and archives today
but will also provide the skills and competencies
students need as they transition to careers in
information and records management. The iSchool
continually reviews and updates its curriculum to
align with the job market, and the new Enterprise
Content Management and Digital Preservation
course is just one of many new courses available
to students.
Alison Peters
San José State University School of Information
(iSchool)
onellestarfish@gmail.com
11
Fall 2015
CSU Archives Collaborate to
Document WWII Japanese American
Incarceration in California
A
rchives at 15 California State University
campuses are collaborating to digitize
nearly 10,000 documents and more than 100
oral histories related to the confinement of
Japanese Americans during World War II.
The National Park Service just awarded a
two-year $321,554 grant to CSU Dominguez
Hills, which is serving as the principal
investigator for the CSU Japanese American
Digitization Project. The project will make
these materials available on a CSU-sponsored
website and also result in a teaching guide and
traveling exhibit for schools and the public.
“It is heartening to have the National Park
Service acknowledge the scale and importance of
the CSU’s collections,” said CSUDH Librarian and
Special Collections Director Greg Williams. “The
grant will ensure that this significant part of our
history can be studied for generations to come.”
Many campuses throughout the CSU system were
located near California’s internment camps and
Japanese American communities. Throughout
the last half century, their archives, libraries,
oral history projects and history departments
continued on p. 12
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
CSU Archives (continued from p. 11)
have collected archival and manuscript materials,
objects, and media relating to Japanese
internment that have yet to be digitized.
With the grant money, participating CSU
archives at Bakersfield, Channel Islands,
Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton,
Long Beach, Northridge, Sacramento, San Jose,
San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo,
San Francisco, and Sonoma will supervise the
digitization and cataloging of their records.
Fall 2015
The images before you were created and prepared
for exhibition by students for the La Quinta
Museum, who offered to host their work as part of
the project.This exhibit is being shown until October
15, 2015.
Robin Stewart
Museum Programming Manager
La Quinta Museum
The grant was one of 20 awarded by the National
Park Service totaling more than $2.8 million to
help preserve and interpret the World War II
confinement sites of Japanese Americans. More
than 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of
whom were American citizens, were imprisoned
by the U.S. government following Japan’s
attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The new grant follows a just completed NEH
planning grant in 2014-2015 that provided
$40,000 for a roadmap to plan and organize the
larger grant. The NEH grant allowed the project
to grow from six CSU archives to 15 archives,
brought nationally-known scholars together to
discuss the project and the use of language in
describing the records, allowed for the cataloging
of 600 records and the creation of a beta-website.
Gregory L. Williams
Directory of Archives and Special Collections
CSU Dominguez Hills
“Focus on Teens” at the La Quinta
Museum
T
he “Focus on Teens” grant is an LSTA (Library
Systems and Technology Act) funded program
received by Riverside County Library System. The
project is comprised of 6 library branches located
in economically challenged areas where teenage
students have access to a digital camera and tablet
with photo editing software then work with library
staff to create digital images. A major objective of
the grant is to help expose and develop students’
technological and artistic skills for the 21st Century
workplace and personal enrichment.
Exhibition Spotlight
The Wireless Age: Electronics
Entrepreneurs Before Silicon Valley
(1900-1960): Selections from the
Perham Collection of Early
Electronics
L
ong before microchips, personal computers
and dot.coms defined Silicon Valley, the San
Francisco Bay Area was deeply involved in a wireless
electronics revolution. History San José is pleased to
announce an exhibit on the early electronics pioneers
of the Bay area: The Wireless Age: Electronics
Entrepreneurs Before Silicon Valley, 1900-1960.
The exhibit opens in the Arbuckle Gallery in the
Pacific Hotel at San Jose’s History Park September
6, running through July 31, 2016.
During the first half of the 20th century,
communications moved beyond telegraph and
telephone wires into an “Empire of the Air,” allowing
transmission not only of voices but music, news
and entertainment. Young Bay Area engineers
and technicians, amateurs and academicians
were remarkably inventive, adaptable, persistent
and versatile. Some, beginning without business
connections, proved to be skillful entrepreneurs.
continued on p. 13
12
SCA NEWSLETTER
Number 156
Wireless Age (continued from p. 12)
This exhibit highlights some of those enterprising
individuals whose passion to explore new
technologies brought the West Coast to the nation’s
attention. It is more than a story of the lone inventor
tinkering away in a backyard shed. Like today, this
story reveals the crossroads of scientific curiosity,
good timing, and fortuitous events with market
forces, business interests, ruthless competitors, and
lawyers. Some later names – Varian, Hewlett and
Packard – will be familiar, but most of the individuals
featured have been lost to the public’s awareness.
Fall 2015
Associates in 1953. The Perham Foundation further
developed his collection, including acquisition of
major manuscript collections documenting the work
of Lee de Forest, Federal Telegraph Company, and
other local endeavors.
The exhibit builds on a “Cataloging Hidden
Collections” grant awarded to History San José in
2012 by the Council on Library and Information
Resources that enabled processing of five major
collections of documents and archival records in the
Perham Collection. For this exhibit, these documents
have been supplemented by electronics artifacts
collected by Douglas Perham over the course of his
career.
For more information, contact Cate Mills, Curator of
Library and Archives (research@historysanjose.org).
Other Articles
Whittier College
O
“Ruth Peiser, one of the first women to operate her
1930, in San Francisco (Perham
Collection of Early Electronics, History San Jose)”
own radio station, c.
Through the Perham Collection’s rare artifacts,
extensive photographs, personal papers and
corporate ephemera, visitors will be re-introduced to
a selection of entrepreneurs who existed in a time
when invention was still an individual, pursuit,
among them Lee de Forest, Cyril Elwell, Leonard
Fuller, Charles Litton, Charles “Doc” Herrold,
Ralph Heinz, Harold Elliott, Jo Jennings, Alexander
Poniatoff, and Leo Jones. Visitors also will be
introduced to early women radio operators and radio
broadcasters, as well as to women and men working
on the production lines.
The Perham Collection of Early Electronics was
acquired by History San Jose in 2003. The collection
is the legacy of Douglas McDonald Perham (18871967), an early wireless pioneer and avid collector.
Perham’s collection parallels his career, spanning
the first 50 years of commercial electronics in the
West — from his early work at Palo Alto’s Federal
Telegraph Company to his retirement from Varian
13
n April 8, 2015 the Wardman Library hosted
our first Archives Open House. to help the
collections gain exposure in the campus community.
We wanted to dispel the impression that the Archives
were a sacred treasure trove and engender use by
faculty, staff, and students. The event was a success
and we hope to continue on the annual tradition.
Marketing played a major role in the success of the
event. I sent out bi-weekly emails to the faculty and
staff in the month leading up to the event, made an
announcement at the faculty meeting, posted fliers,
and even created a “clickbait” buzzfeed-style email
to pitch the event to the student body. In addition,
our student workers posted about the event on social
media including Facebook, Twitter, and Yik Yak to
get the word out to their friends. To additionally
entice visitors to attend the event we held a raffle
with prizes such as mug from the National Archives,
which featured Nixon and Elvis, served refreshments
(offsite on the main floor of the library), and gave
out mini Hollinger Boxes to every visitor. The event
was picked up by the campus newspaper and was
attended by around 50 visitors, a large turnout for
our library. Most of the visitors were staff, followed
by faculty and students.
At the event we displayed items in exhibit cases
continued on p. 14
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
Whittier College (continued from p. 13)
and on tables from each of our collections including
manuscripts, rare Quaker books, daguerreotypes,
and John Whittier’s personal effects. Furthermore,
our Undergraduate Archive intern curated and
presented an exhibit of Nixon campaign ephemera
as the culmination of her internship experience.
Visitors were encouraged to touch or look through
most items on display. In addition, a slideshow of
images from the campus’ history were cycling above
the refreshment stand.
The event was so popular that we have decided to
host a similar event annually. We are considering
options for this year’s event including a film viewing
of a college promotional video created in 1915,
a smaller scale open house, or perhaps curated
exhibits throughout the library. From just this one
event collaboration with the Archives has increased
and we hope the trend continues!
The article on the event can be seen at: http://
thequakercampus.com/2015/04/09/librariansunveil-peek-at-secluded-wardman-archives/
Becky Ruud
Archivist and Special Collections Librarian
Whittier College
Taking the Archives Out of the
Building - the Geocaching Way
I
n 2014, the City of Palos Verdes Estates (PVE)
celebrated its 75th anniversary.
While the
development of the Palos Verdes Peninsula started
almost 25 years earlier, PVE only became a city in
1939.
As part of the anniversary celebration, the Palos
Verdes Library District (PVLD) served on the PVE
75th Anniversary Steering Committee where it
was in charge of creating programs to celebrate the
historical aspects of the city.
The Library decided to use a “then and now” theme
as the core of the history programs. The Library’s
largest collection of archival photographs dating
from the early 1900s was the natural place to start.
With images of the construction of roads, residences
and public plazas, the collection provides a glimpse
of the peninsula as it transformed from a mostly
unpopulated farming and ranching area to one of
the country’s first planned communities.
Working with the local art center, one of the
programs was a month-long art exhibit held in the
Library’s gallery. Entitled Reflective Perspective:
Photos and Paintings Celebrating PVE’s 75 Years,
the exhibit featured select images from the Library’s
archival photograph collection paired with original
art by local artists of the same or similar area as
the scenes depicted in the photograph. The exhibit
continued on p. 15
14
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Geochaching (continued from p. 14)
provided a visual and nuanced telling of the city’s
history as visitors toured the gallery.
The Library’s archival photo collection played
another role in the history programs for the 75th
anniversary. While the exhibit brought people into
the Library to learn from the historical photographs,
another project took the images outside the building
and provided an opportunity to engage the public in
a new way.
Fall 2015
as smart phone, geocachers used the cache
descriptions, geographic coordinates, and clues
found on the geocaching.com website. Direct links
to the cache descriptions were also posted on the
Library’s webpage (http://www.pvld.org/geocaching)
for easy access.
Many geocachers left comments on the geocaching.
com website detailing their experiences.
The
responses included “thank yous” to the Library and
wishes for a “happy birthday” to the city. More than
a few geocachers commented that they had often
driven by the site but had never known the history
of the location, and were thankful for the “nugget of
local history.”
The Library is currently maintaining the caches
even though the 75th anniversary year is over. The
response to the program has been overwhelmingly
positive. The caches raised awareness for the city
and also for the Library’s local history collection.
The project was so successful that a local Girl Scout
working on her Girl Scout Gold Award project has
asked to work with the Library to create another
series of caches for the other three cities in the area.
Called History and Geocaching?, the Library
used the world-wide treasure hunting sport of
Geocaching to reach beyond the Library walls and
into the community. The Library created five caches
of varying sizes and containers. In addition to the
standard cache contents of log sheets and trinkets,
a reproduction of an archival image from the photo
collection was also added to the cache container.
A write-up of the history of the area or activity
depicted in the image was noted on the back of each
image as a mini-history lesson. In addition to the
image, caches included another novel item: peacock
feathers. Peacocks roam freely throughout PVE,
and for many residents they are the city’s unofficial
mascot.
The caches were hidden either where the photo was
taken or at a nearby location allowing geocachers to
compare the current environment with the area in
the 1920s. The Library consulted with the city when
selecting the images and locations to ensure that the
caches were not hidden in sensitive or potentially
problematic areas.
Using either a GPS or a GPS-enabled device such
15
By taking our archival images out of the building,
the Library is engaging with both regular and nontraditional patrons in a novel way, sharing local
history along the way.
Cache Clue on geocaching.com website for cache
“What a Blast!” Park at the waypoint and first take
in the scenic view. Be sure to look south. The cache
is 300 ft away from the parking spot. Once you find
it, take in the scenic view again and “see” the blast
from past!
Monique Sugimoto
Archivist and Local History Librarian
Palos Verdes Library District
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
Recap of “Getting Started with
ArchivesSpace” Workshop
F
or the past couple of years, the SCA Education
Committee has searched for a professional
to teach an affordable workshop on using
ArchivesSpace. A huge thank you is in order to Sue
Luftschein for taking this on. Sue is a member of
the SCA Education Committee and works as the
Archival and Metadata Librarian at USC Libraries
Special Collections. She has served in this capacity
for the past four years and oversees all aspects of
archival management for the USC Libraries Special
Collections department. Sue led efforts at USC to
transition from Archivist’s Toolkit to ArchivesSpace
which they have been using the past year. “Getting
Started with ArchivesSpace” was offered for the first
time to SCA members on Thursday, August 27th at
the San Diego Air & Space Museum prior to the
SCA mini-conference “The Future is Now: Digital
Initiatives in Archives.”
When teaching a class like this, you are often at the
mercy of technology. Unfortunately, the sandbox
version of ArchivesSpace was down for most of the
day. To compensate, Sue created a login for everyone
in the class so they could sign in to the USC instance
of ArchivesSpace and follow along. In just one
day, she did a great job providing an overview of
ArchivesSpaces’ main features and giving attendees
an honest assessment of the program. In addition,
she discussed some of its limitations and provided
examples of workarounds that she and her USC staff
have come up with when using the system. The SCA
education committee plans to offer the workshop
again in conjunction with the AGM in April, 2016.
Below, are recaps provided by our two Walter P.
Gray III Scholarship recipients Lauren Menges and
Nicholas Beyelia.
Katie Richardson
Co-Chair SCA Education Committee
“Valuable Experience for a Young
Professional”
The “Getting Started with ArchivesSpace” workshop
was an extremely valuable experience for me. For
someone who is striving to build a career in special
collections and archives, but has not yet had much
practical experience in the field, this workshop was
invaluable in helping me learn about and understand
how archival collections are managed.
The workshop described and demonstrated in detail
how ArchivesSpace works, from administrative
functionality in managing repositories and users,
to the actual management of archival collections in
creating accessions and resources. The instructor was
especially helpful in drawing comparisons between
ArchivesSpace and other archival management
tools such as Archivists’ Toolkit and Archon. These
comparisons made it easier to visualize how switching
to ArchivesSpace will work in the practical sense,
and better prepare us in knowing what changes to
expect and what challenges exist. I think what was
especially helpful was the instructor’s reiteration that
ArchivesSpace is still a moving target, with changes
and improvements being continually worked out and
implemented in the software. It was clear that she
has had the opportunity to experiment greatly with
ArchivesSpace and learn of both its opportunities
and its limitations. For those limitations, she offered
whatever work-arounds or alternate solutions they
have worked out at her institution.
My institution will soon be making the shift from
Archivists’ Toolkit to ArchivesSpace, and although I
am not one of the full-time staff members leading
that transition, this workshop will make it even
16
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
ArchivesSpace Workshop (continued from p. 16)
easier for me make the change personally and feel
comfortable using this archival management tool. I
feel much more confident in my ability to effectively
work in an archives environment as a result of
this workshop, and I am deeply appreciative at
being awarded the Walter P. Gray III Education
Endowment Fund Scholarship so that I could attend.
- Lauren Menges
“Tangible Introduction to Important Archival
Management System”
I would like to thank the SCA Education Committee
for awarding me the Walter P. Gray III Scholarship.
The scholarship allowed me to attend the “Getting
Started with ArchivesSpace” workshop which
provided me with a tangible introduction to the
ArchivesSpace archival management system. As
a recent graduate seeking employment, I have
become aware of the ubiquity of ArchivesSpace in
the profession and I wanted to learn some of the
basics associated with it. The workshop gave me a
hands-on understanding of how the program works
Fall 2015
and allowed me to recognize some of the nuances
associated with it.
Sue Luftschein directed a very helpful and
enlightening workshop that comprised a short history
of how the system has developed & matured, some
of the challenges that remain and, most importantly,
gave the participants the opportunity to have an
applied understanding of how the system allows
the archivist to manage institutional collections.
Participants were shown basic functions of the
program as well as how to establish administrative
controls, assign restrictions, link controlled
information, etc. A number of the participants were
able to contribute insights and observations that
enhanced the workshop and added to what was a
very evident camaraderie among SCA membership.
Again, I must express my gratitude to the SCA
education committee for providing me with the
means to attend this incredible workshop!
- Nicholas Beyelia
Digital Capture on Steroids
Let us help you bring all your history into
the digital domain.
With our system thousands of images,
documents, and artifacts can be safely
captured and annotated in days, not weeks
–in a form compatible with virtually any
digital asset management system.
Act 3 Partners
In partnership with Digital Revolution - San Francisco
Contact: Archiving@digitalrevolution.tv
17
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
SCA NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
SCA Nominating Committee Looking
for a Few Good Candidates
For the next Society of California Archivists general
election (2016), our organization has these offices to
fill: (1) Vice-President/President-Elect; (2) Treasurer;
(3) Board Member-at- Large; and (4) Nominating
Committee Member.
Our members’ input is very important in helping the
SCA’s Nominating Committee to identify potential
candidates, and we are now soliciting suggestions of
candidates from our members. More than one name
per office may be submitted, and self-nominations
are welcome. Nominees must be an individual
member in good standing (no unpaid past dues,
or interruption in membership for the past three
years). For information about the responsibilities
of a position please see the relevant sections of the
Society’s Handbook (3-11-5). The deadline for the
submission of nominations is December 1, 2015.
18
If you have suggestions for candidates, please
contact the members of the Nominating Committee:
•
SueLuftschein, luftsche@usc.edu
•
Josh Schneider, josh.schneider@stanford.edu
•
Clay Stalls, wstalls@lmu.edu
Thank you, and we look forward to hearing from you!
On behalf of the SCA Development
Committee, our sincere thanks to the
following members for their recent
donations:
Lindy Narver
Mattie Taormina
William Stalls
Lisa Crane
Leilani Marshall
Catherine Mills
Number 156
SCA NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
SCA Board of Directors and Committee Chairs
BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2015-2016
COMMITEE CHAIRS 2015-2015
President:
Ellen Jarosz
Special Collections and Archives
Oviatt Library, California State
University, Northridge
ellen.jarosz@csun.edu
(818) 677-2597
Awards:
Chuck Wilson
University of California, Riverside
cwal989@sbcglobal.net
(951) 686-7870
Membership:
Eric Milenkiewicz
University of California, Riverside
ericm@ucr.edu
(951) 827-4942
Development:
Jeanette Berard
Thousand Oaks Library
jberard@tolibrary.org
(805) 449-2660 x228
Nominating:
Clay Stalls
Dept. of Archives and Special Collections
Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount
University
wstalls@lmu.edu
(310) 338-5357
Vice President/President
Elect:
Mattie Taormina
Special Collections and University
Archives, Stanford University
taormina@stanford.edu
(650) 724-4613
Secretary:
Lisa Crane
Special Collections, Claremont
Colleges Library
Lisa_Crane@cuc.claremont.edu
(909) 607-0862
Treasurer:
Leilani Marshall Sourisseau Academy for State & Local
History, San Jose State University
treasurer@calarchivists.org (408) 808-2064
Membership Director:
Christy Horton
Wells Fargo Corporate Archives
membership@calarchivists.org
(415) 396-0218
At-Large Board Members:
Li Wei Yang
Curator of Western American History,
The Huntington Library
lwyang@huntington.org
(626) 405-2208
Polina Ilieva
Archives and Special Collections
University of California, San Francisco
Polina.Ilieva@ucsf.edu
(415) 476-1024
Immediate Past President:
Clay Stalls
Dept. of Archives and Special Collections
Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount
University
wstalls@lmu.edu
(310) 338-5357
19
Danielle Scott
Hoover Institution Library and Archives,
daniellescott@stanford.edu
(650) 723-3428
Education:
Dee Dee Kramer
San Francisco Public Library
wendy.kramer@sfpl.org
(415) 557-4527
Katie Richardson
Pepperdine University
katie.richardson@pepperdine.edu
(310) 506-4323
Election:
Peter Runge
Cline Library, Northern Arizona
University
peter.runge@nau.edu
(928) 523-6502
Electronic Communications
Supriya Wronkiewicz
Museum of Performance+Design
admin@calarchivists.org
Finance & Investment:
Leilani Marshall Sourisseau Academy for State & Local
History, San Jose State University
treasurer@calarchivists.org (408) 808-2064
Government Affairs:
David Keller
Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California
dkeller@mwdh2o.com
(213) 217-5911
Outreach & Publicity:
Brooke M. Black
Huntington Library
bblack@huntington.org
(626) 405-2202
Jack Doran
Hoover Institute
jdoran@stanford.edu
(650) 497-7431
Publications:
Josh Schneider
Special Collections & University Archives
Stanford University
josh.schneider@stanford.edu
(650) 497-6489
Site Selection:
Gabriele Carey
History Associates, Inc.
ggcarey@emacorp.com
(714) 529-3953
David Uhlich
Library and Center for Knowledge
Management
University of California, San Francisco
duhlich@gmail.com
(916) 616-8003
Western Archives Institute:
Jessica Knox
California State Archives
jessica.knox@sos.ca.gov
(916) 653-5075
Western Roundup Program
Committee Liaison:
Ellen Jarosz
Special Collections and Archives
Oviatt Library
California State University, Northridge
ellen.jarosz@csun.edu
SCA NEWSLETTER
Number 156
Calendar
October, 2015
California Archives Month
April 6-9, 2016
Society of California Archivists Annual Meeting
Santa Rosa, CA
Society of California Archivists
c/o California State Archives
1020 “O” Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
20
Fall 2015